


it's quiet out here

by flusteredkeith



Series: the juniberry and her blade [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Timeline, F/M, Gen, Mostly Gen, Mostly Platonic, Speculation, keith and allura are two peas in a pod, they are podbaes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-17 20:48:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10601958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flusteredkeith/pseuds/flusteredkeith
Summary: In which Allura is pleasantly surprised to see Keith's calmer side.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I've always wondered what they talked about during that time they escaped together in the pod. This is mostly just me speculating, but hope you enjoy!~
> 
> also, special thanks to my friend [quarrely](quarrely.tumblr.com) for helping me read it over once!

Calm. Still. Peaceful.

The serene state of the world outside their pod is the exact opposite of the chaotic panic currently residing inside of her. Allura’s not sure how long they’ve been flying, but now that the adrenaline from their impulsive decision has faded away, peace is about the farthest thing from her mind. What if the team wakes up thinking they deserted them? What if there’s an attack on the castle? Or worse, what if Zarkon finds the castle despite their efforts and they are unable to make it back in time to form Voltron? What if—

She stops herself and takes a deep breath. They’re away from the castle for completely valid reasons, she reminds herself. The rest of the team should be safer without them.

Wondering whether Keith is feeling just as concerned as she is, she glances over at him to try and gauge his emotional state of being—they’re in this together after all. Much to her confusion though, aside from “extremely focused,” she can’t get a closer reading. His face remains stoic and impassive, seemingly unaffected by any bouts of self-doubt or second guesses. It’s really quite impressive.

She wonders how he can stay so quiet this entire time.

“Do you think this is far enough?” Allura asks, starting to feel antsy and uncomfortable with the silence. Straightening up in her seat, she checks the dashboard to see how many doboshes have passed since they left.

Keith shrugs. “I’m just driving.”

“Okay,” she says before falling silent again. Folding her arms, she sits back and allows a few more doboshes to tick by. Debris flies by in the window display before them; her heart feels just as cluttered. Although she knows they’re doing this for the benefit of the team, the inevitable shock and anger when the rest of them wake up still nibbles at the pit of her stomach. Crossing her legs, she leans against the wall and concentrates hard on preventing her fingers from nervously drumming. It’s a terrible habit and she doesn’t want Keith to notice or worry.

“What's wrong?” he asks after one quick side glance at her.

“What do you mean?” she replies a little too quickly. As Keith continues to fly, he spares her one more look before returning his gaze to the road ahead.

“I dunno,” he says. “You seem tense.”

As Allura studies him now with a curious expression, it suddenly dawns on her that she’s never spent more than five minutes alone with Keith before. She knows the boy is smart, of course, but she hadn’t expected him to be quite so observant.

“I’m just… having some doubts,” she finally answers. “I suppose we _are_ doing the right thing, leaving the castle, aren't we?”

“You were all ready to leave when you found me,” he says, keeping his eyes facing forward. “You should’ve stayed if you had doubts.”

“No, you misunderstand me,” she says, shaking her head. “I wanted to leave. I just… my mind tends to second guess itself from time to time, even as I’m in the midst of action. Mostly, I'm just worried what the others might think or feel about it. What if something happens to them?”

“The whole point is to test if Zarkon will find them or us first, isn't it?” Keith reasons. “So it doesn’t matter what they think. If something happens, we’ll figure it out.”

“I suppose,” Allura mutters. “I just hope they won’t be too angry when they find out.”

“It’s gonna be fine,” he assures, casting her a small smile. “They’ll live. Well. Shiro is going to kill us—that is for damn sure.”

Allura snorts. She stops at the sight of Keith’s surprised face and clears her throat. “Sorry. I—I just imagined it. His face, I mean.”

Keith blinks and continues to stare at her before his face cracks into a smirk.

“‘What were you guys thinking?’” he scolds in an accurate imitation of Shiro’s voice. “‘We’re supposed to be a team!’”

“Bless him,” Allura laughs, feeling the tightness in her chest beginning to unravel. She lets out an amused gasp at her next thought: “Oh, and Lance. He’s probably going to be so jealous.”

“Oh man, I hadn't even thought of that,” Keith grins. “He’s going to have a field day.”

“But Hunk will understand,” she says without a doubt. “He’ll know we had to do what we had to do.”

“Pidge will, too,” he says confidently. “She'll explain it to them scientifically. Probably with big words that Lance will be too impatient to decipher.”

“Probably,” she agrees before they break off snickering again. When the laughter dies down, a comfortable silence settles in as she catches her breath. And although Keith’s eyes are back on the glass pane before them, focused and sharp, she notices his smile hasn’t quite left his face. With a deep exhale, her mind drifts over to the last remaining member they haven’t mentioned yet.

“Coran isn't going to be too happy with me though,” Allura sighs.

“Oh, yeah?” Keith says. “Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know,” she says, leaning against the wall again. “Ever since we woke up and discovered we’re the last Alteans left, he’s been more… on edge about the idea of me being in danger. He tries to hide it, but I can tell. You saw how he was after I made so many wormholes in a row.”

“Well, to be fair,” he points out. “You _are_ in danger more often now than ever before. It makes sense. Especially when you add that to the fact that… that you’re the only family you two have left.”

Allura feels the pod begin to slow down and she glances up at Keith. His eyes are still fixed on the path ahead but they seem to have lost their focus somehow. Trying to pick apart what may have caused this, she repeats the last thing he said in her mind. The words “only family,” and “left” echo back in her ears. She knows Keith is an orphan, but she doesn’t know much beyond that. It had been so easy when she approached Pidge to try and coax her into confiding her secrets, but Keith is different. Sensing his tension, she decides it’s not the right time to probe. Instead, she searches for something more comforting to say.

“Well, at least Coran and I aren’t alone anymore. We have you paladins now, too.”

He doesn’t look at her. Her lips tighten—it was worth a try.

Feeling discouraged, she tries to cast about for something different to lighten the mood. Perhaps she ought to ask him when he met Shiro, or to have him tell her a random fun Earth fact she wouldn’t have known otherwise. But right as she’s about to start off with a new topic, Keith opens his mouth and speaks first.

“It’s beautiful out here.”

She follows his gaze and looks upwards at the skies.

No matter how many times she’s seen this wide starry expanse, Allura’s breath still hitches in her throat. Swept away by the demands and concerns of their current struggles, she’s forgotten up until now how untouched and boundless the world really is. As their pod comes to a stop amidst the quiet backdrop of endless black space, she sits back and marvels at its wonder, allowing the stillness to fully consume her.

“It _is_ beautiful,” she breathes. In spite of all the chaos that’s been happening in their lives, she’s reminded that the infinite cosmos has existed for eons. Out here, it feels impossible that there’s a war going on, not when these millions of stars have probably been around longer than Zarkon’s whole empire.

“Back on Earth, I’d always known the universe was much bigger than what we could see with our naked eye,” he says, and Allura can see the multitude of stars reflected in his wide-eyed stare. “But now, especially after what the Olkari have taught us, when I look at how vast the whole galaxy really is and realize there’s still so much I don’t know, still so much I’ve yet to explore… I don’t know. Somehow, I’m even more convinced that we really are all connected.”

_Yeah—except for the Galrans_ , she thinks, but she can’t bring herself to say it now and ruin the mood. Not when Keith’s gazing up at the constellations with the kind of curiosity and reverence found in the face of a young awe-struck child. It’s the first time Keith has ever let down his guard in front of her like this and it feels sacred, something she wants to keep untainted. And when she stares back up at the skies alongside with him, she too feels the same transporting effect, finding herself back in a time when she once looked up at the stars with her father.

She was sitting in his arms in the middle of the juniberry fields as he stroked her hair, telling her stories of legends and great kings of old. _We are all connected_ , he had told her then—though that was before Zarkon betrayed him. She doesn’t know if she can fully believe that anymore. After what the Galra did to their planet, how could they ever find such a harmonious balance in the world again?

But even as the burning rage begins to flare up in her heart, when Allura looks back at Keith out of the corner of her eye, she can’t help but simply let the anger dissolve. Not wanting to destroy the rare bit of serenity they’ve both managed to obtain, she pushes the thought away, for Keith’s sake.

Instead, she lets the memory of her father’s voice calm her mind in the form of a gentle whisper. Because despite the chaos and war that had been dominating their lives, as she sits here with Keith in the cramped space of their pod looking out into the night, Allura is grateful to have a friend to share in this small moment of peace.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hello to me at [flusteredkeith](https://flusteredkeith.tumblr.com)!
> 
> also, if you liked this, check out my first [kallura fic ever](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10210058) :)


End file.
